Ollie Pope Reinforces Claim to England's No 3 Role with Bold 90 Versus Lions

It is hard to determine how relevant of the English team's preparatory game will be remotely important when their Ashes battle kicks off not far at Perth Stadium on Friday – a short span in space or time but worlds away in significance and mood – but if it managed only boosting Pope's assurance, that alone has made the exercise worthwhile.

The English side's No 3 – this fact is undoubtedly completely established – built on his initial innings hundred by adding another 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was impressive was not merely the total of runs but the way in which they were scored. At times the 27-year-old seemed imperious, hitting a dozen boundaries and a two of sixes, hitting the ball sweetly but with fierce determination.

It was only a exhibition game versus a England Lions squad that used fully 11 pitchers across a contest played in front of a handful of people in a open field, but it was nonetheless very noteworthy. For the record, the England team, chasing of 202 after the Lions closed their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets in hand when Smith sped the team across the finish line with a series of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the other two big first-innings achievers, both were dismissed in the second knock, while Root made further runs – 31 on this occasion – but was not significantly more assured, prior to being puzzled and duly dismissed by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an same end shortly after.

Bashir – who concluded the match having bowled 12 overs for each side – will have encountered part of the hitting he confronted quite hostile. His initial six overs versus the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not exactly loose was certainly not very dangerous.

By the conclusion the sixth over of those deliveries, England's other pitchers had allowed nearly exactly the same total of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a somewhat less generous in time, conceding 27 from his final six. He took one wicket, holding a sharp, low-down grab, falling to his right, to finish Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, from 80 deliveries.

Bethell, making up for scoring only a small score in the first innings, was one of three half-centurions in the Lions team's top order. Ben McKinney's returns from opener were more consistent than those from their number three: he made 66 in their first batting effort and improved by two in their second, taking 61 balls to reach his 50 runs, with five boundaries and a couple sixes, the pair from Bashir's pitching. Bethell made 68 then a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover position, who made a low catch at shin level.

Cox displayed comparable consistency, and built on his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at just over a run a ball. There were a few remarkably handsome strokes during his innings, such as a drive down the ground and a pull from consecutive Carse balls to achieve his half century.

Having missed the first day of this match with a illness and made only the most minor of inputs to the follow-up, Brydon Carse pitched superbly when at last given the chance, with McKinney and Cox part of his three wickets.

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